Jump to content

AncientToaster

Members
  • Posts

    123
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

87 Excellent

About AncientToaster

  • Rank
    (3) Conjurer
    (3) Conjurer

Profile Information

  • Location
    Alaska
  • Steam
    AncientToaster
  • Interests
    Strategy and cRPG's, Tabletop gaming and Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels
    Sometimes I go outside, but that is seldom.
  1. I quit playing in Act 3. The combat was getting tiring, the story wasn't captivating me anymore, and I just lost the desire to finish entirely. I just disliked way more things about this game than I actually liked. Personally, this game is one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory.
  2. I've gone back and read some of this review again and despite my initial reaction that it was just a huge rant, there are quite a few things I agree with. His problems with engagement and the combat system itself are spot on for me. I also agree with him that in the 50+ hours I've played, I have not really encountered any unique, interesting combat situations that really stand out. This game truly does throw mobs of "trash" enemies at you for dozens of hours and you repeat the same basic tactics over and over again.
  3. Gotta agree with Matt516 here, this review just seems like a rant and a troll. I'm been vocal about my dislikes with this game, but it's not nearly Obsidian's worst of all time. Did this guy play Dungeon Siege 3 at all?
  4. Well, you could make your own customized party through the adventurers in taverns. That aside, people are dramatizing the consequences of having your backline characters attacked. I had a wizard for main char, never used more than light armor ("Rundels Finery") and had almost no defensive spells (he had some stuff like confusion, blinding and such, though) and while he was attacked several times and got knocked out a few, he could certainly survive multiple hits - I never had chars go down in one hit (with the exception of some nasty traps and a certain fight on the lowest level of the Paths). One thing I found particularly useful was to let Durance cast Withdraw if things got hairy. In the current system, it's not really an issue. We're discussing the implications of the OP's combat redesign in the current system.
  5. Because it's a new world, new serries, new engine. No Forgotten Realms, no D&D to draw upon. Baldur's Gate 2 didn't just magically spawn out of thin air. It was based on the foundation that was BG1. It even contained some of the characters. And the budget is closer to BG1 than BG2. Also, Pillars of Eternity contains much wilderness travel, which is common in BG1 but not BG2. ---------------- I like Pillars of Eternity very much. It has some downsides, like story being told in a somewhat confusing way, but there is much to love. Combat is actually fun compared to BG1. Priest is not required to make a party work. Non-spellcaster party members have various abilities. Classes really feel unique, say what you want. It looks better than I hoped - it does a great job combining 2D backgrounds with 3D characters and light. Writing is miles ahead of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, pacing is better than BG2. For me BG2 felt overloaded in urban areas, in some places you spent like 30 minutes reading conversations and getting quests. Then you go to an adjacent location, and it repeats. There is no pre-buffing, no annoying rituals I have to go through. There are very few exploits. A super-powerful demilich in BG2 ! Let's leave the room and come back when his enchantments have worn off ! Place 40 traps where the boss will spawn for an instakill ! The system is much better suited for a realtime game this time around. Durations are measured in seconds, and more easily modified by stats. In D&D, odd stat numbers DO NOTHING. You get a bonus every even point. In PoE, you may only get +3% damage per point of Might, but you're getting it right away. The setting is interesting and not cliche like BG1, BG2. Reputation system allows a wider variety of characters to be represented, it was originally meant to be in Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound. You can use a variety of weapons, you can't put 6 skill points into a single weapon type and be stuck with it forever. Some characters are better with weapons, but anyone can wear any armor and wield any weapon. It just isn't always in your best interest. Also, the combat system is much more transparent this time around and easier to know what you're doing or why it isn't working. There is engagement (zones of control), enemies can't just walk around as they please, rendering formations useless. Wizards aren't GROSSLY IMBA. There is more than one way to finish many quests. You can scout ahead and see what the next encounter will be, very rarely enemies jump on you with no chance to prepare. Combat is largely optional, you don't have to kill if you don't enjoy it (or loot). But in many cases it's quite obvious if there can be loot, for example a pack of ghosts or animals is probably not going to drop anything interesting. All the ANNOYING parts of BG, like random encounters, are gone. Player is prevented from resting after every single encounter. There is a reason to pay for inns. Encounters are better designed, there is less trash than in BG2. No companion is forced upon you (Imoen was annoying and overbearing in BG2, so was Yoshimo). If you don't like companions you encounter, you can hire your own creations. I can't fault you for your opinion, but there is just so much I disagree with in this post, that it's astounding. - Better encounters in PoE? When is the last time you played BG2? In BG2 the game routinely presented you with interesting encounters that were more than just a blob of enemies standing in the middle of a room that rush your group. - There were definitely multiple solutions to many quests in BG2 - You can scout ahead in the IE games. Hide in Shadows. This also presented many better combat options such as backstabs and trap laying without having your entire party be involved in a sneak situation. - How is Eora not cliche? It literally has every fantasy cliche ever used. Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Wizards. It's essentially Faerun. - How are Wizards in PoE not currently "IMBA" with Gaze of the Adragon and the ability to cast Level 1 and 2 Spells per encounter? Also the fact that they can also shoot a gun as good as anyone, or even throw on some plate mail and tank some hits if need be, and still be able to cast their spells. - The combat system is not intuitive and does not even show you at a glance if enemies are under any kind of effect unless you pause and mouse over them. Just cast a blind spell? Well if you don't pay attention to the combat log or pause and mouse over them, you'd never know if you even landed that spell, because combat is a mess. - Writing miles ahead of BG2? Come on bro...
  6. Maybe It's just me, but all this talk of making the enemies break engagement and go for squishies just creates a chaotic battlefield where all you're doing is trying to break engagement and run away. "So build your Mages tankier" No...that's why he's a Mage and not a Fighter. "You have plenty of ways to break engagement" Yes, initially I do, but you're forgetting something. There are a lot of battles in this game in some areas, and early on your Wizard only has so many spells to cast before rest. If I'm suddenly forced to play "break engagement" for half the fight with Slicken and Dazzling lights, you better give me unlimited rest options because I'm gonna run out of spells pretty damn fast. With all this engagement breaking who is going to be dealing the damage? It's not a simple fix, you'd have to change so many fundamental things about the combat system in general to alter the AI behaviors to break from the tank and go for your back row. I guess I'm not the best at explaining things, but I think the best way to describe what combat would become would be to show you a clip from Benny Hill, complete with the music.
  7. I don't agree. If you had said "anything below 80 Deflection is crap for tanking," then I'd agree. But the difference between 20 and 50 can be huge when it comes to turning crits into hits and hits into grazes. A little defense is the difference between a disengagement attack knocking your squishy out cold, or having them stay conscious with low health after disengaging. This is why a weapon switch to hatchet and large shield is so important, giving +21 to +33 to Deflection against disengagement before attempting it. I'm not a big fan of outfitting my entire crew with Hatchets and Shields and heavy armor so I can eat a disengagement attack. I just think the entire system is flawed.
  8. At first I wasn't sure what your point was then I dawned on me...yes I could see that becoming the next whine on the forums if this change was made. Suddenly people's Meat shields are pointless and chasing enemies around like dogs chasing cats.
  9. You can certainly build Mages not quite a squishy but then that brings up another problem. Damage reduction only does so much for a character with low Endurance, and you can't stack deflection to absurd levels on all 6 characters, there just isn't really enough gear to make that viable. Currently, anything below 80 deflection is "low" and doesn't really do a lot of good, it's also the same for the rest of the defenses. You need to stack them to absurdly high levels for them to really make a difference.
  10. If your mage or other squishy is in danger of getting engaged, wouldn't you then actively move him away, or lay down slicken, or some hold spell then? Or you might just give him better armor, or have another character guard him? There's probably some nuance I'm not getting, but I don't quite see why this means that the system is fundamentally broken. You can but you know as well as I do that your character gets vacuumed into enemies quickly, and enemies move very fast in this game. But it would only be worse without engagement. Without engagement, a proper AI would hunt down your backline completely uninpeded by your frontliners. There is no really good solution right now because the entire battle system relies on Engagement as it's backbone. Without it, you'd have to change the core rules of the game about resting, spells, movement etc. With it, we're stuck with the problems we already have.
  11. I think a Fighter would work. Not all tribesman are Barbarian's. I think if you made sure they were all wearing Hide Armor that would work out. Fighter - Club or Axe w/ Shield Barbarian - Two Hander like a Pike or something Barbarian - Dual wield axes or Clubs Ranger - Bear Druid - Bear Form Druid - Stag
  12. They did stealth add some AI to this 1.04 patch, for better or worse. It still doesn't really fix the main problem: Enagement. If you're not a tank, Engagement is like basically death. Now that the enemies don't huddle around Eder anymore, it's just more of a pause fest so I can get my Cipher or Mage out of trouble. The system to me is just not intuitive.
  13. There is a problem with your idea: Engagement itself. Once any enemy gets a mage or squishy character into Engagement they are basically screwed. A mage eating disengagement is usually death or close to it, which results in chaotic battles which results in lots of resting to be done, and we only have 4 camping supplies per area (2 on hard?) The whole system would need to change if the enemy AI actually used real tactics and attacked our back row. It would be utter chaos. The entire problem with this battle system is engagement, it's a hot debate right now. Personally I dislike it greatly, it encourages tank and spank, precisely what you described, however if the enemy suddenly started following a new set of rules, no fight would be winnable. The battle system itself is already chaotic enough with too much pausing, imagine how bad it would be if you had to manage kiting with all 6 characters and dealing with engagement beyond your tank. God that would be terrible, I wouldn't even play the game. IE games did it better, because you didn't get sucked into this "glue" effect of engagement.
×
×
  • Create New...